I've added Andrew Wright's latest, The Black Lobster, to the downloads page. An online version will follow within the next few weeks.
stirlock Tue Jul 26 15:33:05 2005
Hi. Going through the downloads on the site, I noticed that there was a gamebook there, (The Black Lobster by Andrew Wright) that is not on the main site. I was just curious why this is? Thanks.
stirlock Tue Jul 26 15:43:49 2005
Woops, just saw the news. Kindly disregard my last message.
ffproject Sat Jul 30 08:10:33 2005
The Black Lobster
The online version of Andrew Wright's new gamebook is now available.
Gamebook Fanatic Sat Jul 30 09:00:52 2005
Sorry, I must be missing something..... did you mean that the Blck Lobster can now be played online? Because I can't find the link to it on your homepage. Have I misunderstood, or is not really online yet? Or is the link on another page. Thanks.
Yes, the link's there. Second from the bottom on every page. If you can't see it you could try 'reload' on your browser.
Gamebook Fanatic Sat Jul 30 17:33:19 2005
Ok... I did find the link, but it's on every page except the homepage. I'm not sure if it's just me or not. Anyway, thanks.
Etienne Tue Aug 2 03:21:14 2005
I've just tried the Black Lobster, definitely not my kind of gamebook. I'm not saying it's bad, it's just doesn't fit in my conception of what a gamebook should be.
PHIL SADLER:
It's truly is a shame you've decided not to write gamebooks anymore. Your third book would've been a masterpiece!
ADMIN:
I've got my own gamebook but I'd like to know just how different it can be, stat wise? I don't use skills, endurance or luck. Could you still put it online? It's got a completely new and original combat system and a spell casting system as well.
Thank you.
E.
There are very few people who have written two full-length amateur FF gamebooks. Even if Phil sticks to his guns and doesn't write another one he'll already have written way more than his fair share.
If you send me your gamebook I'll be happy to put it on the downloads page (this also goes for anyone else). Whether there would be an online adaptation depends on all the usual factors, although as it apparently has completely different rules it may not be possible anyway.
martin Sun Jan 15 18:49:57 2006
can you complete the black lobster?
Guest Sun Feb 12 19:07:11 2006
Just read The Black Lobster. Its fun and well written, but seems really, really unfair. How the hell are you supposed to survive the final chapther? Those 2 fights would be almost impossiable, even if you could use luck, but without it your just plainly screwed. And having read the text verison (theirs no way out of said fight!), the ending seems contrived and thrown together
shadowdragon Sun Feb 12 21:47:42 2006
The ending fight was rather simple, you just have to have the right item. I agree that was a pretty good book.
Gamebook Fanatic Mon Feb 13 14:12:28 2006
Actually, there is a way out of the final fight, but you need to make the right choice in an earlier chapter to get a secret reference. You only have one chance to make that choice, and once you miss it, it's gone. You might want to play through the book again to look for it. Since the book is pretty short, it's not that hard to find. If not, here's the answer:
SPOILER
When you are first given the choice to talk to a list of people in the bar (the cook, the barmaid, the pirate, merchant, the guardsman), choose to talk to the guardsman, and he will tell you exactly how much gold you need to bribe the trolls with. You must choose to talk to him first, since he leaves right after your first conversation.
END SPOILER
But yeah, I agree that if you choose to fight, it's pretty hard to win, since your starting skill can never be higher than 9.
shadowdragon Mon Feb 13 14:37:16 2006
Screw that, just:
SPOILER
Get the axe of troll-slaying from the dwarf. Its so much more fun and gives you a way cooler ending.
END SPOILER
Gamebook Fanatic Thu Feb 16 12:03:42 2006
SPOILER
Except that you still have a good chance of losing to the dwarf unless you rolled the max. score of 9 as your Starting Skill, because you have to fight with a -2 penalty against a Sk 7 opponent, which means your Skill can never be higher tha his. And once again, unless you have a starting Skill of 9, you don't really have that much of an advantage against the Skill 10 Troll, even with the axe.
If you are lucky and got a 9 Starting Skill, by all means, go for the Axe and the 'cool' ending. The bribery ending is the 'safe' route for those who start with a lower Skill score. (If you started with Sk 7 you have about 1 chance out of 100) That's the nice thing about this book: you get the choice of either completing without a fight, or you can go for a fight if you want a good challenge.
END SPOILER
The Duke of Wellington Sat Dec 8 12:11:32 2012
Greetings, good Ladies and Gentlemen!
As there is a pause in the Peninsula Campaign, I'm exploring this excellent gamebook 'website'. What marvellous inventions abound in the twenty-first century! I'm completely intrigued by all the amazing innovations in technology - although I'm staggered at how it all works.
Also, a bizarre black box is making this conduit through space/time possible. Most surreal! Perhaps this particular piece of technology is from far in the future...?
I've just been reading The Black Lobster - most entertaining! Keep up the good work!
Deepest Respects, W.
C-Star Sun Dec 9 10:52:18 2012
Role playing on the guestbook? Oh weirdness, my loyal companion...
duffmeister Sun Dec 9 20:07:45 2012
I'm not sure what this new-fangled 'role playing' C-Star refers to is but it is certainly a pleasure to see this website praised by such an eminent personality Duke W. I wish you the best of luck against that Corsican fellow.
Robert Douglas Mon Dec 10 03:06:05 2012
@ All,
Apologies :)
Just my own parody of the spam topic. Andy would have known it was me.
But it's well documented that a man from the 1300's did manage to communicate through a 1980's computer - before the internet was instituted, so the whole thing couldn't have been a hoax. Unless a certain tech genius had nothing better to do...
Andrč Sat Dec 28 16:01:51 2013
First my Shadowrun Shaman gets a point blank belly-shot from a dwarven bouncer & now my lousy barfly gets killed by a dwarven racketeer eagerly grabbing the protection money from "my" corpse??? ;-) Nice FF idea this Black Lobster!
Abalue the mighty twerker Fri Jan 24 08:21:00 2014
Love it, although I always die at the brawl
Adriano Tue Mar 4 13:25:27 2014
Who'd have thought that a modest innkeeper could have so many adventures in an usual working day? Very well written, expecially the nods to many other FF gamebooks!